ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi said that artificial intelligence or computer science was the second leg of every profession.

“The world is running very fast so we must have to run at the same pace as the world does, otherwise, the country would lag further behind the region and the world,” the president expressed these views while addressing the 26th Convocation ceremony of the COMSATS University on Thursday.

He said the country at this stage, badly needed exponential growth rather than linear growth as it was already far behind the region in many sectors including education.

The president said that if the students in their professional lives, ensure justice in society, contribute productively to the country’s development, and learn to share their resources with the poor, the country would see new heights of prosperity and development.

The president said the world was growing exponentially, however, Pakistan’s growth pace was relatively slower in the region.

He said nine per cent of total intermediate students manage to get admission in higher education while in the region, the ratio was over 25 per cent.

The universities should increase enrollment of the students to achieve exponential growth in the country, he added. He maintained lack of timely decisions was one of the major reasons behind slow growth.

We could not foresee the electricity requirement before time and when the time came, we took an emergency decision to install power plants that cost much higher.

He said the neighbouring India announced the data policy in 2012 while Pakistan announced it after a decade in 2022 and that too due to his efforts.

During the ceremony, the president gave away medals to the top position holders and conferred degrees to the successful students in various departments of the university.

Congratulating the successful candidates on getting degrees, he said they had now become elites of the country as around 28 million or 40 per cent children were still out of school in the country.

He said some 55,000 school buildings were required to accommodate all the out-of-school children in the country which was extremely difficult.

Therefore, he said some out-of-the-box solutions were required on an emergency basis as these uneducated children at later stage would become a huge burden on the country’s economy which would not be able to contribute anything productive for the country.

In this context, the president advised the girls’ students to fully utilize their degrees and work diligently for the development of the country.

He said usually, as soon as the girls get married, they quit their professional life due to multiple reasons including fear of harassment at workplace. He said this was the state’s responsibility to stop harassment of women.

Furthermore, he also asked the education as well as other departments to give the women more leverage if they have a gap during service or education.

“They should be welcomed when they re-join duties,” he added.

The president said the most beautiful culture of this country was the joint family system that symbolised love in the society.

The only thing that the overseas Pakistanis miss during their stay abroad is the love and family culture of their homeland, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023